august 30

 Some pictures from our time at a camp that we were so thankful to borrow. It's a magical place.

Not much to say today, other than:

1. I seem to have caught the cold that Adam and the boys had last week. Ugh.
2. My to-do list is getting longer by the minute.
3. If you do nothing else today, make these muffins. I originally posted that recipe back in 2007, before Phillip was even born! Wild. They're fast, simple, and most importantly, delicious. You almost certainly have everything you need in your kitchen. Someone will thank you.

pie & salsa

We have several friends who have brand new babies, and I've been having a great time delivering meals to them (and getting to hold sweet new babies, too!) This chicken pot pie went to one home, and it looked and smelled sooooo good that I had to document it. I do love a good pie, sweet or savoury.

Speaking of savoury, I made Marisa's basic tomato salsa recipe on the weekend from her book, and it is excellent. Sweet and hot and delicious. I omitted the cilantro, as the salsa is mostly for Adam, and he's not the biggest fan. Also because when I looked at our plant, it was in a sad, sad state. The salsa is packed with tomatoes and jalapenos from our favourite vegetable vendor at the market (she knows sooooo much!), onions from our garden, and is fresh and bright and yummy. I made two batches on the weekend, and Adam volunteered to watch the boys this Saturday so I can make another. I don't mind one bit.

We just returned after a couple of days at a camp, and it was fantastic. Everything that camp should be. Dirty, loud, exhausting, happy relaxed fun. We're trying to pack as much fun as we can into these last few days of summer. The weather has cooled down, which I am *such* a huge fan of, and I'm looking forward to our fall / winter routine again. But these last few days are precious! Go forth and enjoy.

date night

Last evening, Adam and I went on a date which included plenty of picture-taking, a sunset paddle on a very quiet lake, and some classic games - Aggravation and SkipBo. Some loons (with a baby!), deer, fish, frogs, a beaver and a woodpecker joined us, but they didn't stick around to play the games. Now that's my kind of a date.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

fruit leather and beef jerky

I have been using my dehydrator and *loving* it lately. Before you tune me out because you don't have one, though, the two things I made this week can also be made in the oven.

Truthfully, there's not many things that I enjoy more than gnawing on a piece of beef jerky. Why yes, I am a refined lady, thank you. We really don't eat that much meat in our house, especially red meat, and I could take or leave a steak or roast. But give me some beef jerky, and I am one happy lady. I feel better when I have some red meat every now and then, and I love having an easy snack ready to grab.

We had some organic stir fry slices in a bundle of beef that we bought at our market a little while ago, and I thought that this would be the perfect way to use it. And it was. This is the original recipe I used for the marinade, but I left out the onion powder and liquid smoke, since I didn't have any on hand. And I probably guessed at the other amounts a bit. I marinated it for a day and a half, took it out and patted it dry, dehydrated it overnight, and it was perfectly dry in the morning. YUM. You could also do it in your oven on its lowest temperature; just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get too dry.

The other thing I dehydrated this week was some fruit leather - another easy snack to grab on your way out of the door, and it's simple, resourceful, and delicious. Also perfect to put in lunchboxes! I didn't use a proper recipe, but here's the method: I warmed some peaches, plums and blueberries (i.e. whatever needed to be used up) on the stove until they started to release some of their juices, added in a wee bit of sugar (I'm going to try honey next time, but I didn't want to experiment too much on my first try), a bit of water, and a splash of lemon juice. Once it was warmed a bit, I whizzed it up with the hand blender. I spread it on lightly greased dehydrator trays made for this purpose, and it was done in a couple of hours. 

You can also do this in the oven on parchment paper; I had a bit extra that I did in the oven which took a couple of hours longer than the dehydrator. Use any fruit you have on hand; apples make it much sweeter (my combo was pretty tart) and dark berries or plums make it extra pretty. Peel the sheets of fruit from the dehydrator trays, lay it on wax paper, roll it up, and cut into rolled strips. I found kitchen scissors worked much better than a knife. Yum!

And in case you haven't heard of Tattly temporary tattoos, they're fun. Adam put some in my stocking, which I hid from the boys (and myself, apparently) and recently found.